YARROW.] MOURNING CEREMONIES—SIOUX. 109 
of the deceased were buried with it; as in the case of a warrior, his bows and arrows, 
war-clubs, &c., would be placed alongside of the body, the Indians saying he would 
need such things in the next world. 
I am informed by many of them that it was a habit, before their outbreak, for some 
to carry the body of a near relative whom they held in great respect with them on their 
moves, for a greater or lesser time, often as long as two or three years before burial. 
This, however, never obtained generally among them, and some of them seem to know 
nothing about it. It has of late years been entirely dropped, except when a person 
dies away from home, it being then customary for the friends to bring the body home 
for burial. 
Mourning ceremonies.—The mourning ceremonies before the year 1860 were as follows: 
After the death of a warrior the whole camp or tribe would be assembled in a circle, and 
after the widow had cut herself on the arms, legs, and body with a piece of flint, and re- 
moved the hair from her head, she would go around the ring any number of times she 
chose, but each time was considered as an oath that she would not marry for a year, so 
that she could not marry for as many years as times she went around the circle. The 
widow would all this time keep up a erying and wailing. Upon the completion of this 
the friends of the deceased would take the body to the platform or tree where it was to 
remain, keeping up all this time their wailing and crying. After depositing the body, 
they would stand under it and continue exhibiting their grief, the squaws by hacking 
their arms and legs with flint and cutting off the hair from their head. The men would 
sharpen sticks and run them through the skin of their arms and legs, both men and 
women keeping up their crying generally for the remainder of the day, and the near 
relatives of the deceased for several days thereafter. As soon as able, the warrior 
friends of the deceased would go to a near tribe of their enemies and kill one or more 
of them if possible, return with their scalps, and exhibit them to the deceased person’s 
relatives, after which their mourning ceased, their friends considering his death as 
properly avenged; this, however, was many years ago, when their enemies were within 
reasonable striking distance, such, for instance, as the Chippewas and the Arickarees, 
Gros Ventres and Mandan Indians. In cases of women and children, the squaws would 
cut off their hair, hack their persons with flint, and sharpen sticks and run them 
through the skin of the arms and legs, erying as for a warrior. 
It was an occasional occurrence twenty or more years ago for a squaw when she 
lost a favorite child to commit suicide by hanging herself with a lariat over the limb 
of a tree. This could not have prevailed to any great extent, however, although the 
old men recite several instances of its occurrence, and a very few examples within 
recent years. Such was their custom before the Minnesota outbreak, since which time 
it has gradually died out, and at the present time these ancient customs are adhered 
to by but a single family, known as the seven brothers, who appear to retain all the an- 
cient customs of their tribe. At the present time, as a mourning observance, the 
squaws hack themselves on their legs with knives, cut off their hair, and cry and 
wail around the grave of the dead person, and the men in addition paint their faces, 
but no longer torture themselves by means of sticks passed through the skin of the 
arms and legs. This cutting and painting is sometimes done before and sometimes 
after the burial of the body. I also observe that many of the women of these tribes 
are adopting so much of the customs of the whites as prescribes the wearing of black 
for certain periods. During the period of mourning these Indians never wash their 
face, or comb their hair, or laugh. These customs are observed with varying degree 
of strictness, but not in many instances with that exactness which characterized these 
Indians before the advent of the white man among them. There is not now any per- 
manent mutilation of the person practiced as a mourning ceremony by them. That 
mutilation of a finger by removing one or more joints, so generally observed among 
the Minnetarree Indians at the Fort Berthold, Dak., Agency, is not here seen, 
although the old men of these tribes inform me that it was an ancient custom among 
